


first date, last date

by greywardenblue



Series: best enemies triad [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Other, hand holding, pre-spyfall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:24:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22640176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greywardenblue/pseuds/greywardenblue
Summary: O is stood up by the Doctor, even though they had agreed to spend an evening together. Or is he?
Relationships: The Doctor/The Master (Doctor Who), Thirteenth Doctor/The Master (Dhawan)
Series: best enemies triad [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1630456
Comments: 33
Kudos: 175





	first date, last date

The worst part about consciously pretending to be a human was the other humans. His coworkers. His “boss”. The old lady walking too slowly in front of him. The couple making out and not noticing they’re blocking the door. All the tiny little things that made him want to just zap them out of existence and be done with it.

But it didn’t matter how frustrating his day was, because tonight, he would see the Doctor again. In person, after all the texts they exchanged that were just never quite enough. There was a giddiness about him at the thought. He, O, would see the Doctor and two of them would watch a musical together, and the Doctor would have no idea who he was. He would have to be careful, of course. He couldn’t show his cards too early, that would ruin the entire plan - but the little charade he put together was the most exciting part. It would make the eventual reveal all the sweeter.

His phone chimed with a message and he smiled - a smile that quickly disappeared as he read the message.

 _Can’t make it. I’m sorry_.

The Master stared at those five words. _Can’t make it_ ? The Doctor was a time traveller, for crying out loud. He typed out his indignant reply ( _if you don’t want to come, just say so_ ) then deleted it. He cursed himself for making O gentle and shy, someone who wouldn’t take this as the insult it so clearly was.

The idea of killing every single person in the sold-out theater was looking much more inviting again.

“Are you waiting for someone?”

He would start with the twig of a woman smiling up at him like a clueless idiot.

…

…

Wait a second.

“I just got stood up, actually,” he said, not letting this recognition show. “My friend said he can’t make it.” But he was a she now - most likely, although the Doctor could have decided to keep the same pronouns in the new body, or choose entirely new ones. He wondered if Missy was any kind of inspiration for this new form. The thought made him smug.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” she said. “Maybe I can fill in? He can’t be that much more interesting than me. And besides, I’m already all dressed up and everything.”

She was. She put on a dark blue suit with a bowtie - and here he thought bowties were the other incarnation’s _thing_ \- and while he would have been curious to see her in a dress, for variety, he couldn’t deny that she looked good. To him, she always looked good.

He allowed himself a smile. “I don’t know. I happen to be very picky about my friends. Are you also a time traveling alien with two hearts?”

She laughed. “As a matter of fact, I might be.”

That was all the confirmation he needed. “Hello, Doctor. You look a bit different from last time.”

“Do I? I barely noticed,” she said innocently. “Although other people surely do, and not always in a good way. Having some trouble being taken seriously sometimes. Also, I nearly got executed for being a witch once.”

He hadn’t heard that story yet. “Really?”

“Really! They chained me to a big tree branch and dropped me in the water and everything.”

He held back a comment at the mention of chains. “But you didn’t drown.”

“No, of course not. I’ve spent some time with Houdini, you know. It wasn’t very hard to get out.” 

“You really can’t resist the name dropping, can you?” He rolled his eyes, but it was accompanied by a smile. “Have you met any of the Founding Fathers?” he asked, nodding towards the theater on the corner of the street.

“Never met Hamilton, if that’s what you mean. Or most of the others. Had a brief meeting with Thomas Jefferson once, but…” She made a face. “Let’s just say he’s not as stylish as in the musical.”

“Also, a major racist,” he added.

“That too. Shall we get going?”

He glanced at his phone for the time. “We have plenty of time, actually. I was thinking we could get a coffee first. Do you like coffee?”

“I have no idea,” she said with a surprising amount of enthusiasm. “I haven’t tried any since the regeneration.”

He laughed. “I’m honored to be trying it with you, then.”

“We could get it to-go. Walk around a little.”

That was alright with him. He nodded his consent and then held his arm out, waiting for her to take it. She looked at him in confusion for a few moments, then reached out hesitantly, and… grabbed his hand, lacing their fingers together.

He blinked twice before squeezing back and accepting the contact. He should have figured she wouldn’t be used to the traditionally feminine gestures - they were rather silly anyway, but the humans insisted on such things - and he wasn’t going to correct the misunderstanding.

“Is it very different, then?” he asked as they walked hand-in-hand. “You mentioned how others see you differently, but what about how you feel?”

“I’m not really sure,” she confessed. “My friend, Missy…” He tensed at the mention, but she went on without noticing. “She loved being a woman for once, I think. Went all out with the dresses and the femininity and everything. I am a new person with new likes, and yet still the same, but that happened before so many times. This isn’t that different.”

He already knew all of this, of course, but as O he had to pretend to be listening like he was hearing about regeneration in detail for the first time. “Maybe your friend can show you some new tricks then. Make-up. Fitted bras. Woman things?”

She laughed again, and her laugh was as warm as her hand in his. “I wish. I… miss her a lot. It’s strange, really. We’ve been enemies longer than we’d ever been friends, but I still miss her.”

He swallowed hard and turned his head away.

\--

For someone who had only met one of the Founding Fathers a couple of times, the Doctor sure had a lot of opinions about the musical. He shivered when she leant in close to whisper in his ear, and he only smirked when the people around them hushed her. She would apologise and sit chagrined for a few minutes, then start all over again. She could not control her excitement, her urge to share knowledge with her friends.

She had always been like that, even when they were young men at the Academy.

“That was fun,” she said once they were out. “I’m sorry I talked so much.”

“It’s fine. I love hearing your voice,” he said honestly. “Now, if only you sang…”

She laughed, and that was almost as good.

“I don’t even know if I can sing. I--”

“-- haven’t tried it in this body yet,” he finished the sentence, and she nodded. “Try it now? For me? Just a little.”

He didn’t really expect her to agree, but it seemed that this incarnation was especially vulnerable to O’s charms. She only hesitated a little before she nodded and started to sing quietly.

And every muscle in his body tensed.

He had expected her to pick an Earth song - he loved some of their music, for the record, that was one thing they got right - but he was wrong. What came out of her mouth was a lullaby from back home, one he hadn’t heard in centuries. Suddenly he wanted to tell her all about the burning, all about the lies, and why they were both better off without that whole planet anyway. But no, he couldn’t, not yet, that would be ruining his own plans and he would be losing her again. He had to draw this out longer.

She only sang a verse before she stopped and gave him a strange look. “Was it really that bad?”

Shit. Perhaps he could play off his weird reaction as a nervous crush. “No, no. I was just thinking that you’re beautiful. I mean, your voice is beautiful… I mean, that song…” 

The words caught in his throat when she stepped forward and hugged him. She was smaller than usual and she fit in his arms perfectly, snuggling close. She held onto him with such need that the Master was almost jealous of O - jealous of himself.

Then she pulled her head back and she was so close, he could feel her breath on his face. He hated her for wanting to kiss this human man he was pretending to be, but he wanted her to do it anyway, because he missed the touch of her lips so much.

And then she was stepping back as if she’d been burnt, and for a second he wondered if she felt the two hearts under his suit, if his cover was blown. But no, she didn’t look angry or even confused, just embarrassed. She was breathing hard, and he knew she was thinking of kissing him, too.

“I’m sorry,” she said, and she slid her hands into her pockets, perhaps to keep herself from touching him. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, I was just…”

“No! No, it was alright.” He reached out to her and she took a half-step back, so he dropped his hands.

“I guess you’re glad I’m not an old man now.”

He grimaced. “It doesn’t change as much as you think it does.” It was an easy assumption to make, that he would suddenly be attracted to her when she was a young woman, but she had always been the Doctor. Neither of their bodies ever changed his feelings - or at least not for that reason.

“I had a lot of fun tonight,” she said finally, and he understood that for the closing it was. “I hope we can do this again soon. Or… whenever. I have time.”

“I can walk you back to your TARDIS,” he offered, holding out his hand. She took it, and they walked back to the alley with the blue police box, where they said goodbye and promised to message each other later.

She didn’t invite him in.

\--

 _Finally some peace and quiet_ , she’d told them. _Tomorrow at lunch._

She kept saying she loved those two things, didn’t she? The peace, especially. And yet, once she had them, she didn’t know what to do with them.

“Any advice for this one, old man?” she said to thin air. “You told me to run fast. You forgot to teach me how to stop.” She brushed her hand against the console and sighed. “Very well. I suppose I can’t blame you for everything, can I?”

That’s how she ended up scrolling through old messages she hadn’t had the heart to delete. That’s how she smiled and cried at the months of texting someone she thought was her friend, who turned out to be her friend in a very different way.

That’s how she found an early message she sent when she was still a man. A dismissal. A lie, because he could have made it if he wanted, of course he could have. But he didn’t, because there was something more important, somebody more important, and by the time the crisis was over, he had forgotten all about O.

She paused.

It was a bad idea. It was a horrible, risky, awful idea, and not only because it would shatter her hearts over and over again.

But it would be worth it, to have him smile at her, to have him touch her without hurting, even if he was pretending to be someone else.

She put the phone down and stepped up to the console again. Lunch tomorrow was a very long time from now. She might as well take a small trip...


End file.
